"I’d had this idea that I could push myself physically through anything if I was tough and smart and rugged, and that the push would show me something about myself and my place on the river. That being able to do things alone was a sign of strength, not fear. I’d thought I could conquer the landscape and fully understand the problem of water use. But none of that is true. The tough part is connection, looking across lines and knowing when to push the lever on what you think is right." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"It’s more interesting and fun to honor the reality that no two redwoods are the same, and that if you’ve seen one redwood … you’ve seen one redwood. We are sustained by each redwood truly seen, and we evolve by understanding and being inspired by the differences between each tree, person, culture, mountain range, and creature of the earth. The Funhogs of 1968 were on the road of realizing in each present moment the truism of the iconic John Muir’s observation: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” If you’ve seen one redwood, you’re connected to them all." — Dick Dorworth Climbing Fitz Roy, 1968, "Viva los Funhogs"
"Keep close to Nature’s heart, yourself; and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." — John Muir via Samuel Hall Young Alaska Days With John Muir
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." — John Muir My First Summer in the Sierra
"I’m increasingly interested in making myself a sheet of paper, in forfeiting my privileged status as author and allowing stacked stones, mud mortar, surrounding geology, encompassing weather...to do the writing." — Leath Tonino Adventure Journal, "The Wild and the Old Places Do Not Need You"
"This is the value of this piece of wilderness—its absolutely untouched character. Not spectacular, no unique or “strange” features, but just the beautiful, wild country of a beautiful, wild free-running river, with no sign of man or his structures." — Anne LaBastille Women and Wilderness
"Should we publish a magazine at all? Since the increased numbers of backpackers are now threatening the backcountry from overuse, how then could we justify publishing a magazine which would probably encourage more backpacking? … It has not yet ben satisfactorily proved that when people do take up backpacking they ergo become more respectful of the environment." — The Editor Backpacker Magazine, Issue 1, 1973
"In many parts of experimental science unexpected discoveries are made in a workshop. The book of nature, whose pages are open to all, is read but by a few." — James D. Forbes Travels Through the Alps
"So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"[Power, not just energy.] It seems to me that our problem has a lot less to do with the mechanics of solar power than the politics of human power." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." — John Muir "The Scenery of California"
"Besides love and respect, this mountain needs none of what you may bring." — Unknown Seen on the kitchen chalkboard at Refugio Cuernos, Torres del Paine
"Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time." — Unknown
"The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders." — Edward Abbey
"There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." — John F. Kennedy
"We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." — Albert Einstein
"For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it." — Jacques-Yves Cousteau
"How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn’t listen." — Victor Hugo
"As complex as the brain is, the world is more so. The brain cannot process and organize all the data that arrive. It cannot come up with a reasonable course of action if everything is given equal weight and perceived at equal intensity. That is the difficulty with logic: It’s step-by-step, linear. The world is not." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
